Walt and Roy Get What They Deserve
by LeeMarieJack
Summary: Sam and Dean come down from the Mountains to make good on Dean's promise to Walt and Roy that when he comes back he is going to be pissed. Sequel to Sons of the Morning. Criminal Minds cross over in chapter five.
1. Chapter 1 - Hunters Gather

Sam and Dean Winchester are the property of Kripke Enterprises, Inc. and the CW. I only play with them for my own amusement and will put them back when I'm done.

**A/N** This story is the Sequel to "Sons of the Morning". It is not really necessary to read "Sons" to understand this story but if you want to know how Sam ended up being able to turn into a Sphinx and why Dean glows in the dark you need to read "Sons". In addition, reviews are always welcome and will be replied to as soon as possible.

**Walt and Roy Get What They Deserve**

Chapter 1

**Hunters Gather**

_Stanza 1_

_We are the hollow men_

_We are the stuffed men_

_Leaning together_

_Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!_

_Our dried voices, when_

_We whisper together_

_Are quiet and meaningless_

_As wind in dry grass_

_Or rats' feet over broken glass_

_In our dry cellar_

_Shape without form, shade without color_

_Paralyzed force, gesture without motion,_

_Those who have crossed_

_With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom_

_Remember us – if at all – not as lost_

_Violent souls, but only_

_As the hollow men_

_The stuffed men_

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot , 1925

Elroy's bar stuck up out of the Nebraska plains like a zit on God's ass. It wasn't attractive, it wasn't well located and it was ugly. No effort had been made within the recent past to either clean it up or paint it. Looking at it, it was a wonder there were no broken windows. The windows it had were dirty and dusty but at least whole. It was the best thing you could say about the outside of the structure.

'Elroy's' screamed the sign on the roof, sending out a useless neon calling card to the uninterested plains.

There was no easily discernible reason for this bar to be located where it was. Literally in the middle of nowhere, it sat beside a poorly maintained county road and the dust of the drought stricken Nebraska plains blew endlessly, wedging into every available crack.

There was a collection of cars and pick-up trucks out front, most of them in better shape than the bar. You could look up and down the road and not see a moving vehicle. So where did this motley collection of rides come from and why were they gathered here?

The Riddley brothers asked themselves these same questions along with, "Whose bright idea was it to buy this place?" over and over. The brothers were relatively new arrivals to the Nebraska flatlands. They had only owned the bar for about two years, an incautious investment, made in a hurry when their previous place of business, a Pittsburg bar, fell under the eye of the local police.

Under pressure the brothers had spotted a real estate ad for Elroy's and decided in their haste that maybe Nebraska was far enough away for their purposes. They had sent money by wire and bought the place sight unseen, trusting the real estate agent's description.

They really should have made at least a minimal investigation before signing on the dotted line and turning over the cash.

Only one of the rosy promises made by the agent had turned out to be true, the place did do a steady business. Ron and Paul Riddley though, simply did not understand their customers. The customers had a tendency to show up at all times of the day or night and not only expected liquor but also food and beds at a moment's notice.

A lot of those customers showed up in pretty rough shape, often needing medical attention, which Elroy's supplied in the person of Elsie, the bar maid. She seemed well versed in first aide and offered no explanation to her employers as to why that was. Elsie had come with the bar, like the sinks and the toilets.

The Riddley brothers just accepted the place as is. If it didn't bother them, they didn't bother it. All in all it seemed to run pretty well without much input from them. Ron served the drinks and Paul ran the grill and life went on. They did notice that pretty much all of their customers carried weapons and the police just never seemed to drop by.

The Riddleys had no idea that they had bought a "Hunters" bar and if Elsie had explained it to them they most likely would not have believed her.

Elsie didn't bother them with the information that the bar had been for sale because something had eaten the previous owner's right leg off up to the knee and he had abruptly retired both from the bar and from hunting one windy September night.

Ron Riddley cast an eye over the current crop of customers. There had been an undercurrent of tension in the place since two guys named Tom and Andy Cantrell had showed up a couple of days ago. They both had bullet wounds, one in a shoulder and the other in a leg. Ron asked no questions and the men offered no details.

While the Cantrells sat at a center table and drank, two of Ron's regular customers, Walt and Roy, no last names there, sat with their backs to the bathroom wall and eyed the Cantrells. Occasionally one of them would walk over and sit at the Cantrell's table for a while and then go back to his table.

Other men had been wandering in over the past twenty four hours and they all seemed to know Walt and Roy. Each new man would wander in, come up to the bar and buy some beers and take the drinks to the table. It happen so often Ron figured Roy and Walt were getting pretty drunk without laying down a penny.

Gradually the tables were getting occupied and Ron had the feeling of a meeting getting organized. He decided to go and make a pass at pretending to wipe the tables to see if he could get an earful of what was going on. It was his bar and if an explosion was imminent he would like a little warning.

Under Elsie's watchful eye he carried out his plan. Try as he might though he only caught a word here and there. The word that he caught the most was "Winchester."

He talked the situation over with his brother Paul and they decided that their best bet for information was Elsie.

When she came back to the bar after repairing the damage that Ron's wet rag had done to the customer's tables they ask her to step into the kitchen.

"Elsie," Ron started. "Do you have any idea what is going on out there? Is it something we should be concerned with?"

Elsie twisted her bar rag and thought about it all

"Are you guys ready for a little truth about this place?" she finally asked. "You've been pretty determined to ignore events happening right under your noses for the past couple of years. You might consider that you 'll be happier just letting it go on like that."

"No," Paul responded. "I don't know about Ron but I want to know. I'm tired of trying to pick up clues about my own bar. I think you should start with who're these customers of ours and where do they come from. What's the attraction here, a busted out bar in the middle of nowhere? Why do they come here, of all places?"

"Alright, I'll clue you in on a little of it but you have to promise you won't push. Some of this stuff is dangerous. Most of those men out there are dangerous," she warned. " Keep whatever I tell you to yourselves for your own safety."

"We aren't children, Elsie." Ron huffed. "We have been running bars all our adult lives and we have seen and done a lot. Why should we be worried about a room full of guys who don't look like they own much but the clothes on their backs? Because they're all armed to the teeth? I've heard the word 'hunters' tossed around. What the hell do they hunt that they need that many weapons? Grizzley rabbit?"

Elsie sighed. "Ok, yes there's a room full of Hunters out there. But they are Hunters with a capital "H", not lower case. They take down the stuff of your nightmares; big stuff, nasty stuff. I wish you would take my word for it and leave this alone. You'll sleep better at night."

Ron and Paul considered their bar maid. "Alright," Paul conceded. "Just tell us what the current excitement is about. A lot of the guys out there I don't remember seeing before."

"There is something special up," Elsie agreed. "Walt and Roy are organizing a hunt. Those two guys, Tom and Andy, who came in a couple of days ago, brought information that Walt and Roy have been wanting for a while. The Cantrells know where the Winchesters are hiding. Now a hunt is getting organized to go put them down permanent, if it can be done."

"Are you talking about murder? Are the Winchesters people?" Paul asked.

"That's just it. ' Elsie answered them. "No one knows for sure just what the Winchesters are now."

"They used to be Hunters. They used to be valued members of that group out there and other groups like them. Evidently, from what I can pick up, they have made a habit of coming back from the dead and that's making everyone nervous; most of all Walt and Roy, because they've been claiming for years that they put the Winchesters down once. They're taking it personally that the Winchesters seem to be back again."


	2. Chapter 2-The Winchesters Are Back,Again

The Winchesters are the property of Kripke Enterprises Inc. and the CW. This story is written for my own pleasure and not for money.

**A/N **The reasons that Dean glows in the dark and Sam can change into a Sphinx were explained in "Sons of the Morning".

**Walt and Roy Get What They Deserve**

Chapter 2

**The Winchesters Are Back, Again**

_Stanza II_

_Eyes I dare not meet in dreams_

_In death's dream kingdom_

_These do not appear:_

_There, the eyes are_

_Sunlight on a broken column_

_There, is a tree swinging_

_And voices are_

_In the wind's singing_

_More distant and more solemn_

_Than a fading star._

_Let me be no nearer_

_In Death's dream kingdom_

_Let me also wear_

_Such deliberate disguises_

_Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves_

_In a Field_

_Behaving as the wind behaves_

_No nearer—_

_Not that final meeting _

_In the twilight kingdom_

The Hollow Men by T. S, Eliot, 1925

Dean climbed out of the Impala and almost, but not really, slammed the door. "Jesus, Garth!" he grumbled, "where the hell are we, the ass end of nowhere in particular?"

He had parked in front of a motel that had individual run-down cabins as rooms. The one he pulled up in front of had wooden siding that had weathered to a grey color. In some of the more protected areas it looked like at one time it had been blue, but no longer. Garth's skinny form lounged in the open doorway.

"Knew you'd love it, Dean," Garth replied. "Did you enjoy the wonderful city of Valentine? You passed through on your way here."

"Is that what that was?" Dean asked. "I remember a stop light. There were some buildings around it. "

Garth shifted out of the way and let Sam past him with a couple of duffels. "Yes sir, largest city in the area, population 2,700 plus. They even have their own web site. Actually, more like a web page on the State web site. I would have advised them to pop for the extra fifty bucks to hire someone who spoke English to write it. Although I have to admit, the fractured English sure makes it memorable"

"Why are we here?"

Garth laughed, "Location, location, location, that's why. We're about 30 miles south of Valentine and 15 miles north of Elroy's bar. That's the bar all your playmates are hanging around."

They moved into the cabin and shut the door. There was a bored air conditioner running that just managed to stir the ever-present dust enough to get it airborne.

On the rickety desk there were brochures extoling the area's attractions; Nebraska's highest waterfall on the Niobrara "Scenic" River near Valentine, all of twenty two feet high and the Merritt Reservoir on the Snake River, south of the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest, a forest made up mostly of grass with islands of pine trees, each one loving planted by hand. Dean was right; it was the ass end of nowhere.

Dean had been recently thrown naked over a waterfall higher than Nebraska's twenty two foot tourist attraction.

Dean hoisted his duffle on the table and pawed around assembling clean clothes. He intended, as soon as possible, to wash Nebraska's dust off. At the sound of a door closing he looked up to see that Sam had beat him to the shower. "Leave some hot water, bitch," he yelled.

Sam's voice floated out of the bathroom. It wasn't clear enough to understand but Sam was laughing. Dean slammed the duffle on the table again to relieve his feelings and sat down, resigned to feeling gritty for a little while longer.

"Have you found out anything about this group of Hunters at Elroys that are supposed to blow our heads off?" he asked Garth.

"Yeah, I've been checking into who's down there. A bunch of hot-headed self-righteous bastards for the most part." Garth scratched at his scruffy hair. "We have a spy on site, the bar maid, Elsie. She's a good ole girl, heart's in the right place but as tough as they come. She's been there for just about thirty years, on her third set of owners now. She outlasted the rest.

"Last guy was Chuck Elbert, wasn't it?" Dean chimed in "Didn't he get his leg taken off by something nasty a couple of years ago?"

"He figures it was a werewolf or a were bear." Garth agreed. "He was looking for the wolf but says whatever ripped his leg off seemed to be bigger than he expected. He's still around. Lives up in Valentine. He's going to be joining us for our little trip down to Elroy's"

Garth stood and opened the min-fridge. "Want a beer? Sounds like Sam is going to be in the shower for a while."

Dean cocked an ear and could hear Sam singing. "Yeah, he's only on the second verse. I think he knows about five of them and then he starts over. Bitch."

"Dean," Garth started. "Are you sure this is the best way to approach this? I mean, you're bold but somebody in that group might just shoot you on sight for the principal of the thing."

"I know," Dean agreed, "but I want to see if we can cut down on the numbers a little. I think we can get Tom and Andy out of there. They're bone deep cowards without Rafe to hold them up. Did you have any luck making your calls?"

"I got through to a couple of them but these are people I don't usually call. They may be good Hunters but that doesn't mean that they're good people, "Garth shook his head.

"The ones I have a relationship with agreed it was something of a witch hunt but they hunt witches too so they don't see the problem. I think I convinced maybe three of them that it would be in their best interests not to get involved with Walt and Roy's problem. If we're lucky they are already gone."

"Well, as they say, every little bit helps. Who have we got to go with us?" Dean asked. "As long as we're with potential witnesses they're unlikely to shoot on sight. I understand the bar owners are out of the loop. How the hell did they manage that?"

"Willful ignorance, according to Elsie," Garth huffed. "Couple of guys out of Pittsburgh. She figures they were running from trouble. I guess they thought that country living was clean living. Too bad, so sad. What a surprise they have in store if they ever open their eyes."

"Who else you'd get?"

"Rosemary is coming down from Sioux Falls. She owes a debt to Bobby and figures this will clear her conscious." Garth went on, "and Bob Brilling out of Lincoln said he'd come."

Garth looked at his watch. "They should all be getting her within the hour. Then we'll load up and go down to Elroys. That makes the two of you, four of us plus Elsie and the bar guys. Seven witnesses are way too many for anyone to want to start shooting. "

He hesitated and smiled. "I might have given the Sheriff up in Valentine the impression that some kind of drug deal might be going down in Elroy's this evening. There might be a deputy somewhere on the premises."

Dean laughed. "Good job. Bob Brilling, Bob Brilling, that name is familiar. Didn't he have some kind of falling out with Dad some years back?"

"Come on, Dean." Garth rolled his eyes. "Who didn't have a falling out with John? Bob said that was John's fault, not yours. He saw no reason to let you get shot over your father's mouth all these years later."

A vehicle pulled up outside and the first of their escort showed up. Chuck Elbert came in with a cane to help him balance on his artificial leg. He accepted a beer from Dean and sat down to catch up on Hunter gossip with Garth. Dean certainly didn't know any gossip since he'd been out of circulation for months up in the mountains

Chuck was a big man with dark hair and eyes that had looked at too many monsters over the years. In a way he was lucky he lost his leg. Few Hunters ever got to retire. They mostly died on the job.

Sam finally exited the shower and Dean took his place. Chuck definitely was interested in meeting Sam. Hunter gossip had been going around about Sam for years. In a way he had become more a legend than a person. It was a hunt for Sam years ago that had started Walt and Roy down their murderous path.

When Dean came out of the somewhat tepid shower a little while later both Rosemary from Sioux Falls and Bob Brilling were crowding around the inadequate motel table. Rosemary reminded Dean of a younger Ellen Harvelle and Bob Brilling was one of John's Winchester's class of Hunter, steady, dependable and haunted. About fifty years old with a full head of salt and pepper hair, Dean figured he had to be good to have made it to fifty still in one piece.

Everyone had a beer in hand and were trading stories back and forth. Sam seemed comfortable with them and they seemed to accept the "weird" Winchester son as well. Dean thought that they might just pull this off. He sat on the bed and gathered his thoughts.

"So guys," Dean got everyone's attention. "I want to really thank you all for offering to help. We want to pull the plug on Walt and Roy's hunt. I want you to know, though, that if you are of the "if it's Supernatural we kill it" mindset you might have trouble with me and Sam. Those Hunters at Elroys have their opinions. Me and Sam believe that if it's evil you kill it. They believe if it's not human you kill it. Two completely different mind sets that have ended up with Hunters split in opposing camps."

"You need to know that the guys at Elroy's have a point. Sam started out as just a psychic, like Missouri Mosley and Pamela Barnes and other people I suspect you know and appreciate. Due to our experiences with the supernatural both me and my brother have been changed. In a way, we never had a chance. We were born cursed and have learned over the years to deal with it."

"Lately things have accelerated and now not even we know what we are any more. I just know that Sam and I are not evil and we don't deserve to die. It's a kind of racism. Odd, but true. These guys want to kill us not for anything we have done to them just for what we are. So , like I said, we appreciate your help. Thank you."

Chuck Elbert was the first to stand. "Well, let's get going and find out what these people have done to my bar." He turned to Garth. "Does Elsie know I'm coming?"

XXXXXXX

An hour later the Impala and a black SUV pulled up in front of Elroy's bar. Three people got out of each vehicle and headed for the door. There was a man standing in the shadows that Dean suspected was the Sherriff's Deputy. They looked like a suspicious group, perhaps even the expected drug runners, so Dean was not surprised when the man threw his cigarette away and followed them inside.

Dean led the way in with Sam acting as his huge shadow. As soon as they were in the door the room fell silent. There was a clock over the bar and you could hear it ticking. Their group headed for the empty bar stools.

"Winchester!" Walt stood and shouted. "You got a lot of balls showing up here. No freaks allowed."

Dean swing around on his stool and stared Walt in the face. "If you've got a problem, Walt, we'll see you outside later. Right now we're here for the Cantrells."

At the shout of "Winchester", the bartender had frozen in place, in the middle of passing out beers to Dean's group.

Elsie came up behind the bartender and slapped him with her bar rag. "Ok, Ron, you wanted to know. Now you're going to see. Don't try anything stupid. Finish passing out the beers."

Dean was looking directly at Andy and Tom. Andy was shaking so bad you could hear his beer bottle rattling against his teeth. Dean stood up and walked to the Cantrell's table, confident that Sam and the others had his back. One or two of the seated Hunters made movements towards their weapons but Dean just looked at them. He started to bring up his glow and felt the effect move across the room.

He knew that in this darken place he might be starting to light up but he didn't care. He leaned his arms on the Cantrells' table. "I want you both to get up and follow me out of here. I'm not going to hurt you but you can't go on spreading shit about me and Sam. I don't like it."

He turned and walked towards the door. He could hear the scrape of chairs behind him and he hoped it was only the Cantrell boys getting to their feet. He nodded to Bob Brilling and Bob also headed to the door. Dean removed the Cantrells from the group as neatly as a cowboy cutting steers from a herd.

Outside Dean turned and looked at the Cantrell boys. They both appeared stunned that they had actually followed Dean outside, away from the safety of the bar.

"Look, I'm not going to hurt you, relax," Dean started. "I want you to get in your car, and leave and keep going. You know as well as I do that neither of you is cut out to be a Hunter. You're going to get yourselves killed. Get away from these people. Don't come back or I'll find you again and then I will kill you both. Got it?"

The Cantrells left. Dean didn't think they were going to be a problem anymore.

As he was standing there, other Hunters who had come at Walt and Roy's call starting leaving the place. Some tried to stare him down as they passed but others pulled at their hats or nodded. They knew courage when they saw it and Dean was hoping that they remembered back when things were clearer and the Winchesters had their backs. Some had hunted with John or Bobby.

Finally Dean's group came out, surrounding Sam. A disappointed Deputy trailed behind evidently completely confused by what had just happened.

Garth turned to the Deputy. "Sorry man. I was the one who called you guys. I guess I got it all wrong. It wasn't a drug thing, it was a personal vendetta. Totally my mistake. Please tell the Sheriff I'm sorry. I'll make it up to him somehow."

The deputy waved Garth off and got into his car. Dean though that maybe only Walt and Roy were left inside. He turned to Sam. "What do you want to do, little brother?"

Sam looked at Dean. "I'm going to want you to leave them up to me. We are going to let the Sphinx take care of them. There is a plan and they are going to suffer for what they did." Sam leaned against the impala and settled down to wait.

Inside the bar there was only Walt and Roy, one lone and confused real customer and Ron and Elsie.

Ron turned to Elsie. "What just happened here? Was that guy glowing? Did you see that"

"Winchesters" said Elsie. "Winchesters happened here. Now you know a little bit." She nodded over at Walt and Roy. "They are all that's left. I have a feeling we are going to lose a couple of steady customers tonight. The Winchesters are probably going to take out the trash."


	3. Chapter 3 - The Sphinx Comes Out To Play

Sam and Dean Winchester are characters from Supernatural which belong to Eric Kripke and the CW, not me. This story is written for my own entertainment, not to make money.

**A/N **If you want to know why Dean glows and broadcasts sex appeal and how Sam can change into a Sphinx you will have to go read "Sons of the Morning". No need to read Sons to understand this story if you just go with it. More fun if you read "Sons" first.

**Walt and Roy Get What They Deserve**

Chapter 3

**The Sphinx Comes Out to Play**

_Stanza III_

_This is the dead land_

_This is the Cactus land_

_Here the stone images_

_Are raised, here they receive_

_The supplication of a dead man's hand_

_Under the twinkle of a fading star_

_Is it like this_

_In death's other kingdom_

_Waking alone_

_At the hour when we are_

_Trembling with tenderness_

_Lips that would kiss_

_Form prayers to broken stone._

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot, 1925

Sam leaned against the Impala's passenger door, watching the vehicles pulling out of Elroy's lot.

The wheels crushed gravel, turned and spun, puffs of dust left behind. The dust rose in clouds that the wind pulled across the lot then shredded into glittering flags and blew away. As the sound of the motors died away the silence of the open prairie leaked in, battling with the tinny juke box music leaking out the bar door.

Sam stood, relaxed, his ankles crossed and one hand playing with a piece of rock, tossing it and catching it again, over and over.

"What you got there, Sam?" Dean asked, walking over and catching the rock on one of its downward arcs.

"Travertine," Sam replied, "a piece of travertine rock from a place called Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. I sent my Sphinx form there last night to get it."

Dean looked at what he had in his hand. It was hard and looked a little like creamy marble with brown striations but there was nothing particularly odd about it.

"Well, Sam, it's a nice piece of rock, but why would you go half way around the world for it?"

Sam put out his hand for the rock. When Dean dropped it into his palm Sam took hold of his hand and pulled Dean into his body. Sam twisted his brother and Dean found himself with his back against Sam's chest, held in a single armed embrace.

"What's up, Sam?" Dean watched Sam's right hand starting to toss the rock up and down again, "You want to let me go?"

"No," Sam replied. "You're warm and you left yourself glowing again. Shut up and let me feel you against me. I'm not made of stone. How do you think I can drive around with you all day, live with you, sleep at night an arm's reach away and not be affected by your gift?"

"It really hadn't occurred to me," Dean answered but he made no effort to move. It was warm against Sam and the Nebraska night had fallen a long time ago along with the temperature. He was also lying. He had been thinking about his effect on his brother.

Other than the light spilling out of the bar's windows there was nothing to see. They could have been on the ocean. The wind rustled the dry grasses of the plains. Overhead the stars cut through the night sky, clear and sharp and pure.

It was so clear and clean you could tell the delicate colors of the stars, clear white, some red and some shades of gold. Blue stars were more difficult to see but they were there too. When the wind moved a twinkling would pass over the face of the sky. The horizon was far from them. No hills restricted their sight and the prairie went on forever.

They stood together in the dark silence, waiting for their prey. They knew that Hunters became prey almost as often as they were hunters. This was the life that all these men had chosen.

"So what's so special about this Lakes place, Sam?"

"Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina; it's where Walt and Roy's spirits are going to spend the next couple of thousand years before they go to hell." Sam rubbed the travertine. "I needed a connection to the past there and this rock is 10,000 years old. I have a plan."

Den closed his eyes. "Sam, can you reach in the window and grab my blanket for me?" He felt the fabric being pressed into his arms.

Dean wrapped the blanket around them as well as he could. "You want to tell me what the plan is?"

"The Sphinx is going to judge them and execute them. It's kind of his job. After wards they are going to be treated to their own private hell. That's all I want to say now. Just don't interfere. Don't approach me when I am the Sphinx. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Tell me about this place you are taking them, Sam. Why should it be hell's doorstep?"

"That's actually funny." Sam replied. "For centuries the area has been known as _Hortus Diabolus, _the Devil's Garden."

"There is a long narrow valley there that maybe at one time had a regular river running along the bottom. This river though emerged from underground, limestone, geothermally heated caverns. When the river exited the caverns its' waters were supersaturated and alkaline."

"Outside the cavern, due to lower temperature and decreased atmospheric content, the pH rose dramatically causing the precipitation of carbonate substances. The spray from these waters fell on mosses and algae along the river and dried, creating the basis for travertine formation."

"Over decades travertine dams formed and the river was broken into a series of lakes, naturally dammed from each other. Water travels from one lake to the next over waterfalls. Each lake is lower than the one before. The whole water formation lasts about four to five miles and loses elevation of about four hundred feet from one end to the other."

"The lakes appear to float above each other and they each one can be a different color depending on plant growth at each location and leached minerals from the mountains. They can be colored from azure to green, grey or blue. They appear to sit on pedestals and the whole thing has been called the Land of the Floating Lakes. It is one of the most alien looking living landscapes on earth."

"Currently there are 16 lakes but within written history there have been up to twenty. It is a living landscape and things change."

"We are sending Walt and Roy's spirits there why?" Dean asked.

"I'll tell you after the Sphinx is done. Look, they're starting to turn out the lights. They'll throw Walt and Roy out soon."

"What do you want me to do?" asked Dean.

"I want you to distract them. Go stand on the south side of the door and glow, brother, glow. I want them to be looking at you, not me."

"Wrap yourself up in your blanket and when they come out I want you to basically flash them. I know they are going to come with their guns out and I don't want to get shot. Understand?" Sam asked.

"All clear, little brother. Oh, look, I can see the bastards at the window. They know we're here."

They could see someone's head poking up over the sill of one of the high narrow windows. Then there was another one. Laughter floated out the door.

"What the hell are they laughing about?"

Sam snorted. "I can hear them. They think we're cuddling. They're building up their courage to come out and challenge a couple of homos."

"Assholes. What, gay guys can't have guns? Is that it? Idiots." Dean sounded completely disgusted. "A fine example of how to get yourself killed by your own prejudices."

The last lights went out and they saw Elsie unlock the door and waved Walt and Roy out. As they stood on the front steps she closed the door and disappeared.

Dean moved into position and turned up his glow. "Hey assholes, over here!"

He saw them raise their guns and he threw himself to the side. Behind them appeared a huge black beast with out stretched wings. The wings crashed down and they both fell into the gravel lot.

Sam was in full Sphinx mode. He was long and dark and his wings were fully extended. Dean swore he saw a tail swing wrathfully around like a whip.

Next Walt and Roy were trying to crawl away. Where ever their guns had gone they couldn't find them now. Dean moved swiftly to find the weapons and protect Sam. He took a second look and thought that Sam could most likely protect himself but he was going to help all he could.

Sam fell on the back of one of the men and sank fangs into the back of the guys' neck. Dean realized it was Walt when he saw Roy get up and run like hell, screaming all the way. Where he thought he was going to go on the flat featureless plain Dean had no idea.

Dean heard the most horrible noise and realized that the Sphinx was biting all the way through Walt's neck while standing on the man's back and kneading its claws into his skin. Dean heard a wet crunch, a suddenly choked off scream and a noise like heavy fabric ripping.

The Sphinx rose. It had Walt's head and spine in its mouth. The grizzly sight was outlined against the rising moon as the Sphinx threw back its head and shook the bloody prize. Dean saw the spine flipping around and blood splashing on the Sphinx's face.

The Sphinx turned and ran past him, evidently going after Roy. It threw the bloody trophy at Dean's feet. For some reason it surprised Dean to hear his brother's voice say "Wrap that up. I'm going to need it."

Walt's dead eyes gaze up at Dean from his severed head. He looked away and saw the Sphinx in full pursuit of the rapidly disappearing Roy. The speed of the giant cat was unnerving. Roy was dead meat.

Dean heard a gasp and turned to find that they were being watched by Elsie and the two Riddley brothers. Elsie had a hand over her mouth and one Riddley had his hands on the top of his head. The other brother was pacing around in a circle.

Just then there was a scream carried on the wind. Dean knew the Sphinx had run Roy down and would be back with another trophy in a minute.

Dean turned and walked to the small group of people. "You did not see anything. You will not say anything to anyone. If I hear this story out in the world I'll come back and bring my pretty kitty with me. Understand?"

They stood stunned by not only what they had seen but by his words.

"Go, go back inside before it comes back. You don't want to be here with it." Dean was not going to call the Sphinx Sam in front of these people.

They turned away and pushed each other along. Elsie had the front door key in her hand and was steady enough to get it in the keyhole. The three of them tumbled into the bar and closed and relocked the door.

Elsie turned and looked at the Riddley brothers. "I told you you didn't want to know. Well now you know."

Ron went behind the bar to pour drinks. Elsie and Paul followed and sat down. "What the hell was that?" Ron asked.

"That," said Elsie holding up her glass. "That was the Winchesters."


	4. Chapter 4 - In the Devil's Garden

The Winchesters from the TV show Supernatural belong to Kripke Enterprises Inc. and the CW, not me. I write these stories for my own entertainment and no money is involved, damn it.

**A/N **If you want to know how the Winchester obtained their supernatural "gifts" you should read "Sons of the Morning" for the explanation.

**Walt and Roy Get What They Deserve**

Chapter 4

**In the Devil's Garden**

S_tanza IV_

_The eyes are not here_

_There are no eyes here_

_In this valley of dying stars_

_In this hollow valley_

_The broken jaw of our lost kingdoms_

_In this last of meeting places_

_We grope together_

_And avoid speech_

_Gathered on this beach of the tumid river_

_Sightless unless_

_The eyes reappear_

_As the perpetual star_

_Multifoliate rose_

_Of death's twilight kingdom_

_The hope only _

_Of empty men_

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot, 1925

Dean stood outside Elroys, wrapped back up in his blanket, and waited for the Sphinx to come back with another trophy. He thought about Sam's voice, coming out of the night, telling him to "Wrap that up."

He nudged Walt's head with the toe of his boot. Thinking about what he had to do now, he went to the trunk of the Impala. He knew there was nothing in there to use to wrap the head up but he got out the salt and gasoline to take care of the rest of the body. Putting his choices down he eyed the soft glow of the single light in the bar.

"What the hell," he thought and walked up to the door. It was locked so he knocked, laughing softly as he did.

After a moment he heard the door being unlocked and opened and Elsie stood in front of him.

"What do you want, Winchester?" she whispered and glanced over her shoulder. Ron and Paul were like frozen statues in the dim lit bar, their eyes glinting with the light.

"You got a couple of burlap bags? Or even big plastic ones. Either will do but I prefer the burlap." He saw her breathe in sharply.

"You think I should help you out, Winchester?" she growled. "Hide your own bodies."

"Come on, Elsie. You know they were assholes. They would have killed me and my brother without a moment's hesitation if we hadn't brought back up. Do you want us to get out of here or not?' Dean stared directly into her eyes

"They thought they had a right to murder anything that wasn't them. They were the kind of guys who used people's dogs for target practice because they were just animals and they were the kings of creation." Dean's lips twisted. "Hurry up before the Sphinx gets back."

There was a scraping sound in the gravel and Dean looked over his shoulder at the Sphinx with its new trophy and then back at Elsie. "Too freaking late, lady. Would you go find those bags now, please?"

Dean motioned at the Sphinx to stay put.

Elsie turned and headed for the back of the bar. Dean walked toward Ron and Paul; both men were still frozen in place. Dean glanced at the whiskey bottle Ron had in his hand and Ron followed his eyes then reached for a glass. Pouring the drink he set it on the bar as far away from him as he could reach without it looking like an insult.

"Why you guys ever thought this bar was a good idea is a mystery I don't have time to solve." Dean tossed back the drink. "Remember, now you know enough to be dangerous. Don't be stupid too. Listen to Elsie."

Elsie was back and handed Dean a couple of burlap bags. He started back out to wrap up Sam's bloody prizes. He turned and found Sam, not the Sphinx but Sam, standing in the doorway watching him.

XXXXXXX

They dragged Walt's body to the end of the parking lot and lit it up. The flames shot up into the night sky and embers floated on the weak breeze. They were going to have to stand there until the fire went out to keep from catching the prairie's dried grasses on fire.

"Where's Roy?" Dean asked.

Sam waved in the general direction of Orion's Belt. "On a rise about half a mile away. He sure ran as far and as fast as he could. Didn't do him any good."

A half hour later Dean kicked at what was left of Walt's body. There were still bones intact and he knew it might take as much as another hour for them to burn. He ran some more gas over it and the fire sprang up, full of energy again. Just then, off in the distance there was a siren. Both Winchesters threw their heads up.

"Shit, little brother, time to run!" Dean gathered up what he could and they headed for the car.

"Who the hell would have called that in? " They loaded and slammed the trunk.

"Don't know, Dean." Sam answered.

Just them Elsie came out. "Go!" she yelled. "The fire tower saw the flames and called us for spotting. Fire Service is on the way probably with that Deputy that was here. Run, the pair of you!"

Someone reached over her shoulder. Dean couldn't tell which Riddley it was. "Elsie, let 'em be. The cops will take care of them"

Elsie rolled her eyes and pushed the hand off her shoulder. "Fools, the both of you!" She went back inside.

They got in and ran south, away from the sirens, with the headlights off.

"Damn, Sam, we are so screwed." Dean pounded on the steering wheel in frustration. "Walt's body is most likely identifiable and they'll find Roy's when the sun comes up. Without a head or spinal cord; that's going to draw attention for sure. Probably hit the papers too."

"Too bad," Sam said. "Especially since I will have to come back to bind the spirits."

"What the hell do you mean?" Dean turned his head momentarily to stare at Sam.

"The spirits are trapped there for now because of the violence of their deaths. I need to go back and bind them or they'll start a lot of trouble around that bar. It's not where I want them to be." Sam acted as if this explained everything.

"We're going to get back to the motel and then you are going to fill me in on this mysterious plan of yours, Sam. You've rewritten the rule book and I want to know what's going on from now on out."

XXXXXXX

Garth was still there when they finally worked their way back north to the motel cabin, sitting at the table they had all been gathered around twelve hours earlier.

"How'd it go?" he asked.

"Not all that well," was Deans' reply. "Walt and Roy are dead but we got run off before we could deal with the bodies right. All kinds of a trail left behind and three witnesses; two of them not even in the life. So shook up they won't know when to stop talking." Dean threw his jacket on the bed.

"Might as well have waved a sign; Sam and Dean Winchester over here."

"Damn." Garth shook his head. "Right back on the Most Wanted list again. Didn't you guys just get off?"

"I've lost track a bit but I think we're supposed to be dead again." Dean replied.

Garth looked over the room. "Gotta go. Things to do, monsters to gank, calls to make." He stood and stretched his long, lanky body, joints popping.

"Thanks for all your help, Garth. You really saved our asses this time." They all shook hands and Garth was out the door. They heard the truck start, followed by the sound of one of Garth's annoying music choices.

Dean eyed his brother. "Start talking, Sam. What's this big plan of yours?"

"First, where are the skulls?" Sam looked around like they were going to appear in the middle of the room

"Out in the trunk, leaking gore all over my stuff."

"Sorry. I need to separate the skulls from the spines. Can I use a machete or is there something better?' Sam asked seriously, like Dean had expert knowledge in the disassembly of bodies.

"Christ, Sam! Bite 'em off for all I care."

"Totally uncalled for, you ass. That was just nasty." Sam glared at his brother. He could tell from the look on Dean's face that he wasn't going to get any further without telling Dean the plan.

"I'm going to use the Sphinx form to travel to and time walk around the Devil's Garden."

"First I'm taking the skulls over to Plitvice and hiding them some place to dry for a couple of hundred years". Sam pulled his piece of Travertine out. "This is going to act as my travel guide. They should get all nice and moss covered by then."

"I'll get them and take them back about 10,000 years and plant them in one of the Travertine dams. I want them to get welded into the dam with the Travertine so that Walt and Roy can see the skulls but know that they can't touch or save the bones. They will have to just watch as the bones dissolve into the water."

"What's the point, Sam?' Dean asked, honestly baffled.

"I am going to psychically chain these spirits to their spines and take them both to Plitvice. I'll drop the spines in sight of the dam face so the spirits are chained there like dogs to a stake. Then I'll let them know that when the bones in the spines turn to dust and the last of the skulls dissolve , they will go straight to hell."

"They can stay there and howl for, I'm guessing, a thousand years, before the last of the bones disappear. That'll give them time to learn to be sorry they ever shot you"

"Damn, Sam, that's inventive," Dean said "and really cold. I didn't know you had it in you."

"No one hurts you and gets away with it. No one but me, I guess." Sam hunched his shoulders and looked into Dean's eyes. " You sacrifice your life and your body for them and they hate you and hunt you down."

"No big deal…" Dean started.

"Shut up! Damn it, you make excuses for everything anyone's ever done to you. You're loud, crude, lascivious, kind and generous and the closest thing to a saint walking the world today. You'd let them lynch you if you thought it would save another soul." Sam stopped.

"You done yet?" Dean, sitting on a Kitchen chair, looked at his empty hands. "It's all I have Sam. All I can offer in trade for the things I've done. What happens to me isn't important. "

"Not true," Sam snapped. "You're what's important; at least to me. Walt and Roy can suffer for a thousand years and it won't be long enough. I think we can use them as a teaching tool. Anyone else touches you and I'll drag them to the Devil's Garden to see Walt and Roy. "

"And what do you say when they call you a monster?" There was silence in the room.

XXXXXXX

In the night Dean heard the Impala's trunk open and figured that the Sphinx was out there working on the plan. He looked over and Sam's bed was empty.

He lay watching the moonlight move over the ceiling. Was Sam a monster? Had he turned into something to hunt? A thousand Hunters would answer yes. He had killed men, the line no Hunter was supposed to cross. Humans were supposed to be left to human law.

He settled more comfortably into the bed, his arms folded under his head. He thought of the story of Ishi that Nixkamich had told them in the mountains. The Yahi tribe had been hunted to extinction in California in the eighteen hundreds.

Their crime was being Indians and, according to the law of the time, Indians weren't humans. Not only were they fair game, the law encouraged 'Indian Hunters' to track them down and kill them with a bounty of 50 cents a scalp and $5 a head, man woman or child. The 'hunters' of the time were so efficient that by 1865 few Yahi were left alive and they went into hiding for the next 40 years.

When Ishi emerged from the California hills in 1911 he was the last of his kind. When he died at 55, five years after coming out of hiding, the culture and the language of his people went with him.

Dean wondered who the monsters were then. If he and Sam agreed that they only killed evil, then was Walt and Roy's evil excused by virtue of them being human? The men who hunted the Yahi would be called murderers today. The law would track them down. This was too confusing. The law of the time said it was legal to kill the Indians because the Indians weren't human, they were animals, savages.

So where did that leave Sam and Dean? Was Sam an inhuman monster? Yes. Hunter law said hunt him down and kill him. Human law said Walt and Roy were innocent because the Winchesters were demonstrably alive so no murders were committed.

Dean decided for himself that evil should be punished and innocence should be defended. When men shot birds out of the trees in the middle of their song just to prove that they could make the shot that was innocence assaulted.

He rolled over in the bed. His gut said that he needed to protect Sam. That Sam was the innocent here, no matter what he looked like.

XXXXXXX

"Dean, wake up." Sam pushed at Dean's leg with his booted foot.

"Stop it, bitch," Dean growled. "What'd you want?"

"I want your ass out of bed. Come on. I brought you coffee and questionable donuts. Move it, jerk." Sam pushed again then went to the table and popped the lid on his coffee.

Dean rolled over and yawned, scratched his head and set up. "What time is it?"

"Seven in the morning. I'll give you fifteen minutes to get ready then I'm dragging you to the car." There was a rustling noise as Sam fished around in the donut bag. "I'll also eat all the donuts so move it. I want to get down to Elroys and bind those spirits so we can leave town. "

Dean yawned again and stood up, dropping the blankets. Still scratching he headed to the shower, grabbing his duffle on the way. He thought he could feel Sam's eyes following him.

After his shower he stood in front of the mirror and realized that he was showing a very faint glow.

"Crap!' He muttered. "Got to remember to turn that off." He realized he was getting comfortable in his new skin and that could lead to trouble. He made a conscious effort to turn it down.

Back out in the room he grabbed the donut bag out of Sam's hands. "The rest are mine." He got his coffee and they headed for the car.

"I need to get the bag out of the trunk, Dean." Sam told him. He took his key and got the bag and casually tossed it in the back seat. "The heads are already gone, by the way."

"Jesus, that thing better not leak on the upholstery," Dean complained. "We better not get stopped. That would be real hard to explain away especially if they are looking for a couple of murderers."

After a couple of minutes they were on the road to Elroys again.

Nebraska hadn't gotten any less flat in the night. You could drive for miles and nothing changed. The telephone poles flashed up to you and were left behind. That was just about the extent of it. Elroys rose up in the distance like an island on the ocean.

Slowly the bar got larger. They then noticed the police cars gathered in front of the building.

"Ah, hell," Dean exclaimed. "I know they were going to make a big deal out of this. This has got to be the most excitement they've had since the last prairie fire."

"How the hell are we going to do this, Sam?"

"Drive past and when we get around to the back of the rise I left Roy's body on; stop and let me out. I'll bind Roy first then I'll circle back for Walt.

The road curved and hid them from the sight of the cop cars. Sam bailed out, took the bone bag out of the back seat and felt around in it for Roy's spine. Dean had no idea how Sam knew which one was Roy's.

Sam held a spine in his hand and tied the bag on to his belt. He looked at his watch. "Give me a half hour then drive back up the road past Elroys. Keep going and I'll meet you along the road."

Dean knew the Sphinx was coming out. "Don't get shot, Sam."

Sam waved him on, crouched down and disappeared into the tall grass.

XXXXXXX

**A/N **Dean's musings in the night about the morality of Sam's actions developed out of discussions between me and Kinikia, another writer. Your input and opinion on the question would be appreciated and taken into consideration in the denouement of this story and the development of the next story in this sequence. Thanks. Leave a review and I'll reply.


	5. Chapter 5 - Paradigm Shift

The Winchesters are the property of Kripke Enterprises and the CW. The Criminal Minds crew is the property of the MarkGordon Co., CBS Television and ABC Studios. No one belongs to me, mores the pity.

**A/N: **If you want the details on how Sam became the Sphinx and where Dean picked up his come-hither glow you'll need to go read "Sons of the Morning".

**ANOTHER A/N: **Surprise, a little cross over with Criminal Minds to follow.

**Walt and Roy Get What They Deserve**

Chapter 5

**Paradigm Shift**

_Stanza 5_

_Here we go round the prickly pear_

_Prickly pear prickly pear _

_Here we go round the prickly pear_

_At five o'clock in the morning_

_Between the idea_

_And the reality_

_Between the motion_

_And the act_

_Falls the Shadow_

_For Thine is the Kingdom_

_Between the conception_

_And the creation_

_Between the emotion_

_And the response_

_Falls the Shadow_

_Life is very long_

_Between the desire_

_And the spasm_

_Between the potency_

_And the existence_

_Between the essence_

_And the descent_

_Falls the Shadow_

_For Thine is the Kingdom_

_For Thine is_

_Life is_

_For Thine is the_

_This is the way the world ends_

_This is the way the world ends_

_This is the way the world ends_

_Not with a bang but a whimper_

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot, 1925

"Garcia." "Yes, boss man?"

"Call in Reid and Morgan and Rossi. We all need to be on the plane as soon as possible. We've been called in by the Omaha office." Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner had called Penelope Garcia, his Technical Analyst. "There's an unusual one out on the Northwest corner of Nebraska."

"Yes," Garcia cut in. "I saw the report on that one come in and I wondered if we were going to get involved." She literally bounced in her seat with excitement. "Two headless bodies! Signs of mauling and bite marks. Whispers of superstition and men back from the dead. Sounds like a horror movie!"

Today was a 'yellow' day for Penny. She had yellow feathers and a sunflower in her hair. Her bat wing glasses had yellow rims and the rhinestones sparkled with the lights of her computer equipment. In the dark and crowded office she was all kind of colors, cheerful and luminous.

Hotch warmed at the excitement in her voice. "Good to know you're ready to fly. I have a feeling we're going to need your skills out in the heartland. A lot of people out there aren't going to like us stepping in even though the local LEO's seem out of their depth and I'll depend on you to smooth our way."

He turned and picked up file folders off his desk and loaded his briefcase. A tall, thin and intense man, it was difficult to imagine him smiling. With his son Jack he was a loving and attentive father; with his unit he was tough but fair, tying together as diverse a group of FBI agents as you could find. The BAU team functioned smoothly with him as their touchstone, a calm center.

Often he found himself infuriated at the evil that men could do but he controlled his emotions with an iron hand, always searching for reasons and trying to understand the motivations of the unsubs he pursued.

Garcia made the calls, assembling the team. Reid and Rossi's calls were brief and to the point. They knew the faster they got to the plane the faster they would know all they needed to about the case. The call to Derek Morgan was longer and loaded with flirting.

"Hello, sweetness," Garcia cooed.

"What up, baby girl", Morgan's dark soft voice murmured down the line.

"Excitement in Nebraska, if you can believe it," Garcia flung back at him. "Headless bodies, stunned witnesses talking of a monster and men returned from the dead. The bodies are not only missing the heads, their spines are gone too."

"Sounds like sick perpetrators or insane witnesses." Morgan came back. "Why us?"

"All I know is what Hotch said, the Omaha office called us in." Garcia stood up and groped around for her purse. "I'll see you on the plane, sweet cakes. Love you. Bye." She removed her comm unit and left the office.

XXXXXXX

Less than an hour later the team was assembled and in the air. They gathered around the conference table, subdued in the white interior, Garcia was a riot of color. She still had her flower and feathers in her hair and had intensified the whole effect by putting on a dress with an entire flower garden printed on the full skirt. She eased their hearts just looking at her.

Hotchner stood and passed out the file folders. "I am not sure how to approach this one yet. Either we have an new kind of psychotic killer , or two, or our witnesses are frighten so badly they don't know what they're saying. "

There was a moments silence as they all absorbed the materials in the folders.

Of course, the first to finish was Spenser Reid. "You know, a lot of this doesn't really make sense. The witnesses are saying that the Winchester brothers were there? Didn't they die a couple of years ago?"

"As far as the FBI files are concerned the Winchester case was closed two years ago. They were shot to death in a small town in the mid- west." Hotchner agreed.

David Rossi pitched in. "These witnesses are claiming a giant cat bit the one guys' head off…in front of them! Actual eye-witness accounts? First we are going to have to take a hard look at these witnesses."

Rossi tapped on the file papers with his pen. "These witnesses are local inhabitants?"

"We don't know much more than what you see in front of you." Hotchner explained. "This all just happened last night and the speed with which the local LEOs bounced this to the FBI's Omaha office and that office bounced it along to us is impressive. No one wants to go near this one."

"Well speculation is pretty much useless here." said Reid. "These reports are close to incoherent. Until we get there and make our own determinations I would rather not try to theorize. It would just turn into brain clutter."

"I agree," David Rossi joined in. "The best thing we can do is get some sleep. What do we have, a two hour plane flight and then we drive from Omaha all the way across the state? There are no closer airports?"

Garcia interjected. "No, Sioux Falls in South Dakota is you r next choice and it isn't all that much closer. This happened in one of the emptiest stretches of land in the US. The town of Valentine is only 2,700 people and it's the largest town in the county. The whole state of Nebraska has a population of less than two million and most of them are clustered in the Eastern part of the state around Omaha and Lincoln."

She giggled "Plenty of room to swing a cat."

"All right, Garcia. We get it." Rossi pushed his glasses up to the top of his head, reclined his chair and shut his eyes.

XXXXXXX

Hours later they were circling the Omaha Nebraska Airport, waiting to land. Out the plane windows they could see Omaha basking in the July heat. Situated on the bank of the Missouri River it was connected to Iowa with an attention grabbing bridge.

"Funny," mused Rossi. "I guess I was expecting stock yards and wide open spaces, not just another modern city with office towers and freeways."

"Catch up to the times, mon cherie," smiled Penney. "The Old West no longer lives outside jet windows. We have to travel further into the heartland to find your corrals and pastures."

In the terminal they were greeted by an imposing African American man. Penny's eyes lit up and flickered. She was immediately attracted. Derek placed a hand on her arm. "Down girl, stop drooling."

"Raymond Ellis," he introduced himself, shaking hands with each agent in turn, "SSA for this particular kettle of stinking fish. I'll have to get my Bureau Chief something special for Christmas this year in honor of this assignment. Let's get to the car and get started, shall we?"

He led the way out of the Eppley Airfield terminal. Outside a black SUV with room for them all waited.

Ellis got behind the wheel and Hotchner took shotgun. The other three agents found plenty of space in back. The SUV had seating for seven.

"We sent a tech crew on ahead of us already. We're going to be in a motel about 15 miles north of this bar, 'Elroys'; that's the crime scene. There's no housing closer than that." Ellis glanced in the rearview mirror, gathering the eyes of the agents in the back. "The tech team will see to it that you have proper communications and internet access. We may be the real boonies but we know what we're doing."

"I'm sure that everything will be fine." Hotch said. "Are there tensions that need to be addressed? What are the local LEOs like?"

Ellis snorted, "Thrilled to death to get this whole thing off their hands. The rumor mills in Valentine are smoking their wheels. Monsters, giant cats, dead men walking, this one's got everything and no-one, including me, wants anything to do with it. You guys live far enough away that the stink won't stick when you get home."

"You got the report that we sent in, right?" Ellis asked.

Reid raised his voice from the back of the vehicle. "It's not all that helpful. I'm sure there must be a lot of detail omitted because, on the face of it, this report makes little or no sense."

"Tell me about it." Ellis laughed. "I wrote the thing and fifty percent of what I was told I didn't even want to put on paper. I had to sign it and I like my job."

They drove smoothly away from the airport. After airports like New York and Chicago and Atlanta, the Omaha airport seemed almost rural. Before them stretched a 300 mile trip to the Northwest corner of the state.

"Well, we have plenty of empty time in front of us." David Rossi said. "Tell us about the other 50%."

"The Sheriff out of Valentine is Dave Conklin, a good man. Former cop here in Omaha who ran for Sheriff in Valentine as a form of retirement. He's not happy about this mess on his doorstep. I trust him. That's a pretty peaceful part of the state, mainly cause no one lives out there. The major part of the population consists of cattle and vultures."

"He was fuming when he called this in to us. The chief got us all in the conference room and put Dave on speaker after getting a taste of Dave's tirade."

"Dave said that the Fire Service spotted flames during one of their night time aerial passes and called in the trucks. When they got out to Elroys they found an almost completely burned body in the bar's parking lot. They put it out, trying to save something of the remains although they were pretty much gone. Whoever set that fire knew exactly what they were doing."

"Evidently Dave had sent his Deputy, Ron Givens, down to that bar that night because they had gotten an anonymous tip that a drug deal was going to happen that evening so Ron was right there. He had been leaving but turned around and followed the trucks."

"Ron has been our best source for confirmation of what the people in the bar have been telling us. He left before the excitement started but we'll take what we can get."

"According to the bar owners, a couple of newbies out of Pittsburg a few years back, there had been some kind of a gathering of what they call 'Hunters' in the bar." Ellis paused.

"What do they hunt in that corner of the state and why would hunters need to gather?" Hotch asked.

"These are hunters with a capital 'H' and they don't hunt white tail deer." Ellis went on. "There have been rumors about them for a long time. Strange men, living rough, a sort of underground culture."

"If you ask someone what they hunt the standard answer is 'you don't want to know'. We've pretty much ignored the rumors about these people but this incident puts them on the radar. I had no idea that they gathered in numbers like this but that's what the bar owners tell us."

"These 'Hunters' were gathering for a major hunt and, according to the owners, the hunt was for Winchesters."

A noise from the back of the vehicle directed everyone's attention to Derek Morgan. "If by Winchesters, they mean Sam and Dean, those guys are dead. They died two years ago in a shootout." Derek snapped out.

"So I heard," Ellis smoothly answered. "First, do you guys know of any other Winchesters? And, that shootout, didn't the bodies disappear?"

Hotch spoke up. "The Sheriff who had control of the bodies had them cremated by mistake so we supposedly know where the bodies went. Of course, there is the problem of the Sheriff disappearing immediately thereafter. So there might be a hole that they could have crawled through. They were famous for impossible escapes."

"Ron Givens claims that he saw Dean and Sam Winchester walk into that bar. He didn't know who they were until the Sheriff showed him pictures but he is positive that's who he saw. He heard some guy from the back of the room challenge Winchester and Winchester told him he'd see 'Walt" outside later. We think that one of the bodies is this 'Walt' guy.

Reid interrupted "That's one of the bodies. Another was found out on the prairie and that one wasn't burned, right?"

"Correct," Ellis agreed. "Ron was there when Winchester convinced two guys sitting at a table to follow him outside. After that the impromptu meeting broke up and gradually everyone, including Ron left the bar with the exception of the guy who had shouted at Winchester and the guys' friend who was sitting with him. We think that's the other body. It's hard to tell without a head."

Ellis fiddled with the air conditioning controls. "After Ron left we have only the three witnesses who said that they saw a giant cat bite off Walt's head and then take off after Walt's friend who was running and screaming."

"After that this Dean Winchester look alike told them not to talk about what they had seen or he would come back and bring his 'pretty kitty' with him."

"That just sent a shiver down my spine." Garcia chimed in.

"Take it easy, baby girl." Derek comforted her. "These witnesses had just hung out at a bar for the entire evening. They probably have no idea what they saw."

"We'll be there in just under three hours and you people can question the witnesses yourselves. The bar owners can't shut up according to Dave Conklin. He thinks it's a nervous reaction. On the other hand, he can't get the bar maid, Elsie, to say anything useful. Dave's pretty sure she's the one who knows what's going on out there."

Ellis now adjusted his seat belt; he was done playing with the air conditioning controls. "You might as well get comfortable. I don't know anything else useful and it's going to be a long trip."

XXXXXXX

Dean found Sam sitting in front of the cabin in the morning with a spine in his hand.

"Do you think that's very smart, Sam? Sitting around outside with a body part in your hand?"

"Nobody alive is here, Dean. I think it's pretty safe. I've got Roy attached to this thing but, god-damn Walt is hiding from me."

Sam tossed the spine up in the air and caught it again. "I'm thinking of taking Roy over to his new home in Plitvice. But we're going to have to go back to the bar for Walt. I had to come back to the lap-top to find an addition to the binding spell. I needed a summoning added."

Dean looked around, hoping not to see Roy. His little brother with his casual handling of Roy's spine was getting seriously creepy.

"Sam, do you mind? Tossing that spine around like you're playing jacks is making my skin crawl."

"Sorry, Dean." Sam put the spine in his lap. "Do you want to say bye to Roy? I can make you see him. I'm pretty proud of the psychic chain and collar I made."

"That's fine, Sam. Just make him gone. No need for tearful good-byes on my part."

"By the way," Dean went on. "Just how safe is it for us to go back down to Elroys? That place has to have cops crawling all over it."

"Speaking of which," said Sam, hiding the spine behind him. "Who the hell is this?"

Dean glanced at the black SUV that had just pulled up in front of another of the cabins. Men in dark suits exited the vehicle, carrying equipment cases. "Damn, they should just give up and paint FBI in big white letters on the damn doors. Go to the car Sam. We got to get rid of Roy and go trap Walt before he kills one of these agents."

Sam watched the FBI move in to the cabin from the Impala as Dean went and checked them out and cleaned up their room.

After loading the trunk Dean pulled away from the cabin. They stopped about three miles away and Dean pulled off the road. Sam got out, picked up Roy's spine and disappeared into the tall grass.

Dean stood leaning against the car, waiting for his brother. There was nothing to see except tall dry grass waving in the wind and far off birds circling, most likely over something dead. Later, as he almost nodded off from the monotony, Dean was startled by a hand on his arm.

"What? Oh, Sam, back already? The world sure is getting small." Dean stretched and got back in the car. "Roy all settled in? What's he think of his new home?"

Sam laughed. "Well he's not too happy. Especially after I explained that bad as Plitvice is, it's nothing like where he's eventually going to end up. Let's go find Walt and get back to some place that has trees."

They drove back past Elroys. In the parking lot was a couple of police cars and Walt's pyre was surrounded with fluttering yellow crime scene tape. Dean thought that the cop cars where mostly likely Valentine's complete police force. He wondered if there was anyone left in town to pass out tickets at that lone traffic light.

As they drove away Dean saw another black SUV pull into the lot in his rear view mirror. They parked behind the slight rise where Sam had killed Roy and Dean hoped the Impala was out of sight. They exited the car and Dean started to walk back up the road, taking advantage of whatever meager cover he could find. Sam slipped into the grass and went down the face of the rise.

As the Sphinx Sam's head was perfectly visible if anyone bothered to look. He wanted to focus the attention on him and away from Dean so he sat in a perfect cat pose and watched the agents spread out in the parking lot. His tale arced up and flicked behind his head, adding movement to his silhouette.

This group certainly looked different from any other group of FBI agents he had ever seen and he wondered what kind of Unit they were. There was one cheerful looking woman with a sunflower in her hair. He nick-named her 'Sunny'. He saw a skinny agent in a sweater vest pull out and use a pair of binoculars so he knew he had been noticed.

He looked over the rest of the agents. There was a tall guy in a standard FBI dark suit, an older man with a dark beard and glasses, a tall dark skinned guy who stood like a fighter and stationed himself next to 'Sunny' with a hand on her arm. Then there was the geek in a sweater vest and lastly another dark guy in a standard FBI suit.

He wondered what kind of a geek would be wearing a sweater vest in ninety degree weather. Of course, he was wearing a fur coat. To each his own. Binoculars were appearing like magic.

Sam figured if they were all looking at him, no one would notice Dean coming up behind the bar. So he gave them a show. He stood up and stretched, reaching for the sky and accentuating his height. Then he extended his wings. The shouting came to him, carried on the wind.

XXXXXXX

"Did everyone see that?" Spenser Reid cried out. "Jesus Christ! What is it? I'm not hallucinating, am I?"

"If you are seeing a gigantic winged cat, then I'm right there with you, Reid." Derek Morgan answered Spenser's cry. Derek knew that Reid was capable of questioning his own sanity and he wanted to reassure the younger agent.

Rossi and Hotch both joined in with their affirmations also. The Valentine police, Dave Conklin and Ron Givens ran out of the bar when they heard the shouts outside. They caught a glimpse of the cat figure and then it disappeared.

Morgan handled Garcia off to David Rossi. "Keep an eye on her for me David, "he asked. He then joined Spenser and both men began to slowly walk in the direction of the cat sighting.

Morgan was nervous about walking through the tall grass. He knew it could hide anything so he wasn't surprised when a voice came out of nowhere.

"One of you turn and look back at the bar." The voice instructed.

Morgan nodded to Reid. "Do it, Spenser. What do you see?"

"Someone has his arm across Garcia's neck. He also has a gun pointed at everyone else. He's in total control of the scene, using her as a shield." Reid answered.

The voice came again. "No one has to get hurt. We're just after something that got left behind. Throw your guns in the grass or I'll tell my brother to knee-cap somebody in that lot." The voice grumbled. "Do it! Toss them!"

Spenser and Reid threw their guns as instructed. "The back-up guns too. I mean it. And then raise your hands."

They did as instructed. The cat rose up out of the grass right in front of Spenser. He was so shocked at the sudden appearance that he backed up too fast and fell on his ass.

"What are you?" Spenser's voice shook.

"I am the avatar of Maahees, Nubian warrior god and son of the Goddess Sekhmet," the cat answered him.

"Ok," Spenser continued in the same weak voice. "But you sure as hell look like Sam Winchester."

The cat laughed. God, the cat laughed! Spenser felt his world slowly sliding sideways. "I'm that too," the cat answered. "Now let's all get back to the parking lot."

They turned and started to trudge back the way they came.

Morgan was trembling in frustration but he had noticed that the cat appeared to be well armed. In addition to its physical traits there was a gun in its' hand, paw, whatever. He held his peace. They came to the end of the grass and stepped into the parking lot.

"You must be Dean, then," Morgan said to the man holding Garcia hostage.

"If you asked me I would say that right now my name is Tammuz but you can call me Dean if you're more comfortable with that." He laughed. "Look, we just came back to pick something up that got left behind."

"What? Evidence?" Hotch joined in the conversation.

"Not even close," was the response. "Sam, come here and get the keys and the shot gun."

The Sphinx moved over to Dean, keeping Morgan and Spenser still covered. Now that he was out of the grass his size was even more overwhelming and he was noticeably, aggressively male. For the first time they saw he was wearing a shoulder strapped pouch that hung off his hip, the same color as his fur and almost invisible.

He took keys from his brother and dropped them in to the pouch. He also got a sawed off shotgun out of a scabbard on his brother's back.

"Tammuz was an ancient Babylonian fertility god," Spenser announced. "And I would describe Sam here as a Sphinx. What happened to you both?"

Spenser was clinging to what he knew in the face of a world that he could not believe existed.

The Sphinx answered him. "We kept getting killed. We came back after Walt and Roy because they shot us both in an early morning sneak attack when we were in our beds in a motel outside Muncie in April of 2010. We owed them for that. This is payback."

Dean joined in. "Every time we came back we came back a little less human. We still have our souls but our humanity is getting a bit tattered."

"I would second that remark," David Rossi spoke up. "But how is it that you keep getting to come back from the dead? That's quite a gift."

"Hold that thought," Dean interrupted. "Sam, get on with it. We can't stand and chat all day."

The Sphinx removed a spine from his pouch and threw it on the ashes of Walt's funeral pyre. He started chanting and a chill passed through the air. He increased the volume of his chant and suddenly the spine twitched and moved. It started to slide and Garcia screamed. Everyone else in the lot felt like joining her.

The Sphinx picked up the spine and shoved it into is pouch. The pouch then started to shift and shiver.

"You got him, Sam?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, all done. Didn't even need the shot gun; he never had a chance to materialize."

Sam approached his bother again and replaced the shotgun.

"Go get the car, bitch. I'll keep our friends here entertained." Dean instructed.

The Sphinx dropped to all fours and took off. His speed was chilling and his passing made a breeze.

All eyes went back to Dean and his hostage. For the first time several of the men noticed that Dean seemed to be glowing. There was a soft golden light surrounding his figure. Garcia did not seem distressed. As a matter of fact she looked very comfortable and could almost be described as cuddling in his embrace. Rossi, the man closest to Dean also looked pleased and couldn't take his eyes off Dean. No one appeared to be distressed in any way.

Rossi said, "So how is it that you get to come back from the dead?"

"God wills it." Dean answered. "I think he's got a sense of humor. Sam believes he really doesn't give a shit and it's the old family curse at work. Our family is cursed, we're cursed and our children will be cursed."

"Now, Sam's going to be back in a minute with the car and I would appreciate it if you people would just leave us alone. That's all we ask. Walt and Roy belonged to us and that's over now. I don't think we have any carnage planned for the immediate future and even if we did there's not a damn thing you can do about it, so knock it off."

The roar of an engine heralded the arrival of the Impala. Behind the wheel Sam Winchester just looked like Sam Winchester, not a giant cat. Dean leaned forward and kissed the side of Garcia's face. She put her hand up to touch the kiss on her skin.

Dean backed up into the passenger seat, keeping his gun on them continuously. With a spitting of gravel and a cloud of dust, the Winchesters took off; leaving stunned and bemused agents in their wake.

There was a general movement towards finding their guns but Hotchner turned to Ray Ellis and said "Sorry Ray, there's not a lot we can do for you here. You know who your killers are, you even heard them confess. You certainly don't need a profile and I don't know that we could give you one anyway. There is no need for the police to look further."

Hotch's eyes included Dave Conklin in the group. "About the only thing that you really need is a good fantasy writer to file your report for you."

"I'm going to get my team back to Virginia. Some of them are severely traumatized and will need time to recover from this case."

Everyone made a generalized movement towards the various vehicles. In a short while the only thing still at the crime scene was the bar and the crime scene tape fluttering in the wind.

**The End**

**A/N**: The next planned story in this sequence is named **Hunter's Moon **and willstart posting sometimethis coming week.

**Reviews are necessary to fuel the creative process. If you liked it, say so. If you didn't like it, say so. Say something.**


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